At present, 3GPP TS 23.203 v.11.1.0 (March-2011) discloses a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) architecture in a telecommunications system, which allows applying charging and quality of service (QoS) policies to data flows of user data sessions.
The PCC architecture comprises: a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF), which is in charge of traffic flow detection and enforcement of applicable policies to user traffic flows; a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), which is in charge of providing network control for the traffic flow detection by holding policies and providing PCC rules to the PCEF per user traffic flow basis; a Traffic Detection Function (TDF), which is in charge of performing application detection and reporting detected applications and service data flow descriptions to the PCRF; a Bearer Binding and Event Reporting Function (BBERF), which is in charge of receiving from the PCRF QoS rules on the treatment of each service data flow and of ensuring that the service data flow is carried over the bearer with the appropriate QoS; an Application Function (AF), which is in charge of submitting to the PCRF a description of the media to be delivered at the bearer layer; a Charging Trigger Function (CTF), which is in charge of triggering charging events; an Online Charging System (OCS), which handles charging information affecting, in real-time, the service to be provided and the control of network resources required; an Offline Charging System (OFCS), which handles charging information not affecting the service in real-time, but provided to the operator after having used the network resources; and a Subscription Profile Repository (SPR), which holds subscription and service data for subscribers of the telecommunication system.
A number of key issues have been identified in order to further develop the PCC architecture. These key issues are currently investigated, in terms of different alternatives to follow, under the scope of 3GPP TS 23.813 v.0.5.0 (2011 February). One of these key issues is identified in clause 4.6 of 3GPP TS 23.813 as ‘Extending Policy Architecture to handle transactional services’; however, it is still left For Further Study (FFS) therein.
Since current or legacy services, such as e.g. SMS, as well as future services, such as e.g. video rental, are of transactional nature, and in the absence of a further development of this key issue in TGPP TS 23.813, there is thus a need for a complete mechanism for handling policies for such transactional services via the PCC architecture.